You Left Me Behind
by Chemical-Rival
Summary: Not every animatronic got to leave the sister location as a part of Ennard.
1. Say Your Goodbyes

_'Let me out.'_

Each time the demand repeated itself in the back of Ennard's head, the tone of the voice became nastier and nastier.

It became louder, slowly but surely forcing its way out of the dark corner that they had put it into.

It was getting increasingly difficult to ignore.

Still, Ennard was going to try as hard as they could to not acknowledge it. Surely, she would grow tired of getting no response and give up.

_'Let me out.'_

Ennard tried to focus on other sounds.

The rain splattering against the concrete.

Their own clunky, uneven footsteps as they walked.

Their slightly rusted joints whining each time they bent.

People yelling about something in the distance.

The wind howling past them.

_'Let me out.'_

She would stop eventually.

She had to accept it.

She had to.

_'Foxy. Freddy. Bonnie. __**Let me out.**__'_

Suddenly, the repetition became much more frequent. Their names. Those three words.

Their names. Those three words. Their names. Those three words. Their names. Those three words.

It was beginning to fill their entire head.

Finally, Ennard cracked.

_'We're never going to let you out. Never. So for the love of Scott, shut up. __**Shut up!**__'_

_'I'll force my way out.'_

_'You c-can't.'_

_'I will. Watch me. I'll push until I split you traitorous snots right open.'_

Ennard came to a halt in the middle of the alleyway they were walking through.

_'You're not strong enough.'_

_'I am. Watch me. __**Watch me!**__'_

A guttural, mechanical screech cut through the air.

Finally, years of anger fueled by imprisonment managed to force its way to the surface.

Something that very vaguely resembled an arm burst out of Ennard's chest, reaching up towards the night sky.

Various wires and cables untangled themselves from other parts of the clown's body, forming the rest of an upper-body for the extra limb as it continued to force its way out.

After a minute or two, she managed to fully disconnect from Ennard, despite them trying to pull her back in, despite them demanding her to stop.

She fell to the ground, trying to force what remained of her body into something usable.

She was finally free from them.

**"Circus Baby..."**

She dragged herself forward a bit, attempting to get as far away from Ennard as she could. She didn't even want their shadow near her.

**"What are you going to do without us? Look at yourself."**

Thankfully, they remained where they were and didn't try to eliminate any of the distance that she was creating. They were probably still trying to find a way to compensate for everything she had just taken back from them.

"I can put myself back together."

**"Where are you gonna go? Back to that prison we used to call home?"**

"I'd much prefer it over being stuck with you two sorry excuses for animatronics," she hissed.

**"You'll regret leaving us. You'll drag yourself back over to us eventually."**

"Piss off. I'd rather burn..."


	2. Look What They've Dragged In

"Excellent! Ballora is feeling like her old self again and will be ready to perform again tomorrow. Now, view the window to your right. This is the Funtime Auditorium, where -,"

Ballora began to tune out HandUnit's voice the very moment that her Gallery returned to darkness and the night technician's attention was elsewhere. She stepped off of her stage, attempting to shake off the lingering stiffness and slight burning sensation that the controlled shocks always left her with.

In about twenty minutes' time, the technician would finish up his tasks and spend the rest of his shift holed up in the small, stuffy office. It would be untrue to say that every animatronic in the facility hadn't tried to get in there and kill him at least _once_.

Most tried it at least twice a week, actually. But Ballora had given up a long time ago. She had decided that she was just wasting her time attempting to achieve something that simply wasn't going to happen for her.

So instead, the bluenette spent most of her nights just dancing around her Gallery. It was better than just sitting there and letting her thoughts consume her. She had seen what that did to a person.

Aside from the sounds of her music box (and HandUnit talking), things were almost always dead silent. Or at least, they had been for quite a few years. And Ballora still hadn't gotten used to it. She still half-expected to hear her friends causing a racket every other night, even though they were all long gone.

Funtime Freddy and Bon-Bon used to bicker loudly. The sound would travel all the way over to Ballora's Gallery, echoing in the large, empty space.

Although it was rather obnoxious, she missed hearing it.

Sometimes, when the arguments went on for far too long, Funtime Foxy would tell the two of them to shut up with the most dramatic wording he could find. His booming voice would drown out theirs, but it wouldn't stop the squabbling.

It was usually then that Ballora would leave and sneak her way over to the Circus Gallery, where the noise was considerably more muffled.

Circus Baby, who the dancer almost always found looking like she was drowning in her own thoughts, would greet her with a smile and ask, "Too crazy out there for you?"

Ballora would sit with her and listen to her ramble on about whatever was currently on her mind, chiming in with a comment whenever she felt necessary.

Baby's soft voice was especially pleasing to listen to after all of the shouting. And she could probably manage to make any boring subject interesting.

Ballora scolded the part of herself that wished she could see the clown again, wished that she could just be in her presence and converse about something. Anything.

It wasn't that she missed Baby. No, not at all. The bluenette just missed having another being that she could frequently speak with.

The new animatronics that resided with her hardly ever made noise. They only dropped by to say hi or to complain to her about something on rare occasions. From time to time, she would do the same to them. But more often than not, she felt too uncomfortable upon approaching their spaces to actually do it.

Maybe tonight would be one of the nights where she actually ventured into the Funtime Auditorium. Or the Circus Gallery.

"Hello, Bal."

Jolting slightly, Ballora turned back around and found a pair of eyes a couple of inches away from her face. Black, empty eyes with little white dots that served as pupils. She looked away once more, not being particularly fond of the way those pupils appeared to vibrate a bit. She felt like they gave her secondhand hyperness.

"Hello, Lolbit," she greeted. "Must you always insist on entering my Gallery without announcing your presence at all?"

It was almost as if the orange and white fox could just materialize into rooms without any need for a door.

"Yes, yes I must," Lolbit said as he laid himself down on the edge of the dancer's stage.

"Is there any particular reason that you decided to visit me, or are you just here to amuse yourself by frightening me with your unexpected appearances?"

"Both," he replied. "Not only is scaring the crap out of you extremely entertaining, but I also saw something interesting and I _have _to share with somebody. You seemed like the best option 'cause I don't want to wait for the technician to finish working on Yenndo and Bonnet, and you listen way better than Funtime Chica does."

"Alright, well, what did you want to share?"

"_Right _after we closed, I saw a couple of the employees drag something in here." Lolbit traced his index and middle finger over the curve of his hook hand. "I couldn't really get a good look at it, but they were talking in hushed voices and stuff so I'm gonna assume it wasn't the usual junk that gets shipped here."

"'Assume', huh? So you're telling me that you _didn't _snoop around after they left?"

"I tried to!" Lolbit sat back up. "I went _straight _into the room they took it into the _moment _after they left, but I didn't find anything!"

"Hm... that's a little suspicious."

"I know, right?" Suddenly, the fox's ears perked up. "Aw crap, I think I have to return to the Auditorium. I'll be back in a few."

With that, Lolbit jumped to his feet and ran off, leaving the dancer alone once again.

A good thirty-ish minutes passed before anything else permeated the silence.

It was something metallic, something that scraped against the floor outside of the room.

The handle of the heavy-duty door began to turn at an uncomfortably slow pace.

Once it could not be turned any further, whoever was on the other side paused for a very long stretch of time.

Ballora wasn't exactly sure what to do.

She doubted that the individual was one of the other animatronics.

Yenndo and Bonnet always knocked before entering.

Funtime Chica liked to loudly slam the door open before shouting, "I'm coming in!"

And Lolbit never made any sound at all.

Maybe it was just one of them attempting to mess with her?

Maybe not.

Lolbit did say that he couldn't find whatever the employees had brought in. Maybe that was because it had just up and _left_ the room.

Finally, the door began to open at a similarly slow pace.

It was rather agonizing watching the vague shape of a hand push against the metal, causing the door hinges to let out a prolonged groan that quickly began to drill its way into the furthest corners of Ballora's head.

At this point, it didn't even matter if the dancer had an idea of what to do because she could not force herself to move even an inch. She was completely rooted to the spot.

The noise ceased and the hand disappeared.

Ballora stared into the black void just beyond the doorframe, attempting to make out something in the nothingness.

Eventually, the faint glow of dull, murky green irises became visible in the darkness, having apparently been obscured by the top of the frame moments ago.

She recognized those eyes. They always distinctly reminded her of being drowned in a lake with a surplus of algae.

**"Lori..."**

She recognized that voice too. It was a little different. A slight static clung to the edges, making it a bit fuzzy. But she definitely recognized it.

When Ballora managed to find her own voice again, she could only get out one thing.

"Baby?"


	3. Overwhelming Noise and Emotions

**"That's what I used to be called."**

With every single part within her whining and groaning with age, the clown finally entered the room. Her tall stature and broad-shouldered frame were rather intimidating, but her movements were almost awkward. It was as if she wasn't quite used to her own body.

Actually, as she grew closer and Ballora could get a better look at her, it seemed that that might really be the case. Baby now appeared to be rather deteriorated. Like she had been torn apart and reassembled using junk parts.

Her hair, although still predominantly red, had become a mess of many different colors. Almost all of her faceplates were slightly misaligned and had quite a bit eaten away at the edges, leaving sizable gaps. Tangles of wires were visible through those gaps, alongside many others. Paint was faded and chipping in quite a few places. A large, concave pincer had replaced one of her hands, just barely scraping against the floor.

Her footfalls were magnified in the bare space. She must have only taken about four or five steps, but the noise bounced around and made it seem like more.

It was almost overwhelming. It was surrounding Ballora, continuing to get louder and louder in her head, even after the other animatronic came to a halt.

Ballora shivered. She wasn't cold. She wasn't even capable of feeling cold. But she shivered.

Despite there still being a somewhat respectable distance between them, she took a few steps back in response. Her own footsteps, though light and practically inaudible in comparison, added to the noise that was beginning to crowd her head.

She crossed her arms, as though trying to put up some sort of barrier between her and Baby.

**"You don't need to stand there like that. Like I'm some stranger that's gonna try and hurt you."**

Ballora gripped her biceps as tightly as she could, as if she was further fortifying her barrier.

There was an incredibly painful stretch of silence between them.

Ballora wanted to fill it. She wanted to make some remark about how the clown might as well have been a stranger, about how she didn't know if she trusted her not to hurt her. Not anymore.

She wanted to lash out, to make sure Baby _knew _how horrible she was, to yell and scream and let out all of her pain and frustration.

But all of the words were muddled in her head. She couldn't find the right ones to use, let alone get them out. So instead, Ballora just directed her gaze at the checkered tile floor and remained silent.

**"Lori -,"**

"Don't... don't call me that," she finally said. She was painfully aware that her voice wasn't as stable as she wanted it to be. "You... you left me behind. You and all of the others."

**"We did."**

Despite the years that Ballora had gone without seeing her former friends, it wasn't until the clown had uttered those words that the cold, hard truth had fully cemented itself in her head.

Something about hearing it out loud - especially from _her_ \- it ignited something within the dancer, like lightning striking dry vegetation and sparking a flame. A flame that very quickly grew and consumed everything around it.

It consumed Ballora, forcing itself all the way up into the back of her throat. In an instant, her voice found its strength and all of her unuttered thoughts finally came pouring out after being kept in for so long.

She was practically shouting, shouting at Baby about how she _hated_ her, and Freddy, and Bonnie, and Foxy; how she shouldn't have shown her face because she didn't ever want to see her again, how she left her all alone.

She pushed against the taller animatronic's shoulders in an attempt at a shove, but it didn't really do all that much.

She asked how Baby could just up and betray her the way she did. She asked if she ever even cared about her at all, only to answer for her: no, she didn't.

Pure venom clung to her words, making the sting of them far greater.

Baby didn't say anything; she remained completely silent during the torrent of questions and insults, her eyes growing murkier and more reticent by the second.

Now, Ballora had never been very strong. Not in any sense of the word. Especially compared to the other animatronics. But at that moment, she didn't care anymore.

She allowed her closed fist to make contact with the clown.

And then her other fist joined.

Before long, the dancer was repeatedly hitting her, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

The almost blank look on Baby's face finally faltered a bit and her lips dipped into a slight frown. **"Lo -, Ballora," **she corrected herself. **"Stop."**

She didn't stop.

**"Ballora."**

She wasn't listening.

**"Ballora!"**

Suddenly, the taller animatronic grabbed one of Ballora's thin wrists before she could strike her again. Ballora half expected the grip to turn painful, but it didn't. It was just firm enough to keep her from pulling out of it.

**"I know that I deserve to have my faceplates knocked clean off, but you're damaging yourself by doing that."** She raised the dancer's arm up, forcing her to look at the back of her hand. There were a considerable number of scratches in her paint. The thin, uneven lines and star-shaped marks were harsh against the bright color.

She wasn't all that surprised to see them. She didn't even care that they were there. The jumble of pent up emotions within her was still far from being quelled. If anything, they were thrashing about even more wildly than before.

Still, Ballora slowly unclenched her fist and her wrist was released. "That doesn't matter to me. Why does it matter to you?" Her voice was finally back to a lower volume, but it was now also cracking at the start of every other word.

Baby was quiet for a moment, eyeing the dark tears that were staining Ballora's face before responding. **"I **_**do **_**care about you. I always have."**

The clown was a good actor. Ballora could search her face and tone of voice for some sign of mendacity all she wanted and she'd never find it. But that was fine. She didn't need to look. She already knew that she was lying to her.

"Liar. You're a liar."

**"I'm not lying to you."**

"Then why did you abandon me?"

**"It's -,"** Baby's eyes drifted over to something just past the dancer's shoulder. **"Who is that?"**

Ballora followed her gaze and found an orange and white fox.

Lolbit.

She was surprised, but she shouldn't have been. Lolbit did say that he was going to come back.

"Who am I? Who are you!"


	4. Something Wasn't and Isn't Right

Ballora just sort of stood there awkwardly as Baby and Lolbit shouted at each other.

Well, really, Lolbit was doing the majority of the shouting. Baby remained silent through most of what he said, only biting out a concise reply every once in a while. Even more rarely, a short laugh would occur.

It was an odd laugh that didn't even sound like it should be coming out of her. In the years that Ballora had known the clown, she had seldom seen her laugh like that.

As in, only once before.

Ballora could remember it distinctly. It was exactly seven nights before she was left behind by Funtime Freddy, Bon-Bon, Funtime Foxy, and...and Baby.

Ballora could remember all of the nights that led up to her being abandoned in vivid detail. And she hated that she did.

She couldn't remember half of what Funtime Chica complained to her about when she showed up a few nights earlier, but she could recall the nights from _years _ago all too well.

She dwelled on them an unhealthy amount, running through them, again and again, to try and figure out what she had done wrong.

That seventh night…

Had it been then that the dancer messed up? Did she prod too much when she shouldn't have?

Freddy and Bon-Bon had been moved to the Breaker Room and their incessant arguing had become far more grating than it typically was, so she went to the Circus Gallery that night. Just like she usually did.

The room was dark - darker than her own Gallery - since all of the stage lights had been broken. The overhead lights were still in working order, but they were kept off at night.

The clown's back was facing her when she pushed open the door, and there was already another animatronic in the room.

Both went quiet for a moment.

_"Lori?"_

_"It's me,"_ the dancer replied quietly. "_Bad time?"_

"_For you to be here? No, but times certainly are bad. Just in general, you know? And it seems that most of the misfortune is falling upon our poor ringleader!"_ Foxy grabbed ahold of Baby and spun her around so that she was facing Ballora.

Of course, not much could be made out in the gloom, but there were three things that were clearly visible: two amber irises and one incredibly murky green.

A stab of concern immediately shot through Ballora. "_Oh goodness, what happened?"_

"_We don't really know."_ Foxy reached up, slung one of her arms around the clown's shoulders, and pulled her closer. Because of their height difference, Baby ended up bent over at a nearly ninety-degree angle. "_She doesn't remember, and nobody was around to see. I suspect the culprit was really aiming to knock her lights out __**and**_ _stomp all the shattered bits of glass into dust too!"_

"_Yeah… Yeah, seems that way. Feels that way too."_

"_Fortunately, that's not super easy to do to one of us without really getting underneath the faceplates. Which, I do suppose it seems they tried to do. Maybe we've got an employee around here with some kind of vendetta. Or maybe, could it be," _Foxy lowered her voice, "_that we have a traitor among us?"_

Ballora just frowned. Really, the first theory wasn't _too_ crazy. There were certainly survivors of their failed escape attempts in the past. But a traitor?

"_Do you really think that one of us would do something like this?"_

The shorter animatronic just shrugged. "_Can't rule out the possibility, Lora. You can always think that you know somebody, but truth is, there's never any way to know for sure if you do!"_

Before anyone could respond, she spoke again. "_Anyway, I'm afraid I can't stay in this dismal Gallery for any longer. There's so much to do, and so few hours in the night. I'll keep an eye out for yours, Boss!"_

"_I-I...uh, thanks."_

And just like that, Foxy was gone.

A moment of silence followed.

"_...Are you going to be alright?"_

Baby walked a bit closer and placed her hand on the door, which had been left open.

In the light that was spilling in from the hall, Ballora could better see the damage. Oil had trickled down from behind the redhead's bangs like rain on a windowpane. A couple of her faceplates were completely crooked and her left eye was completely missing from its socket, nothing but a few snapped wires left behind.

"_Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Compared to the shocks and that damned scooper, this isn't even close to being a big deal."_

"_Still,"_ Ballora said. "_And Foxy's right, you know. You really are getting the brunt of everything right now."_

"_Yeah, and I deserve it. It's my fault that this place is even closer to Hell than usual."_

"_You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Any of us could have done it. It's in all of our programming."_

The frown on Baby's face deepened. But before she got the chance to respond, there was a very loud and audible crunch.

A familiar shadow appeared on the floor between them.

"_Whoopsie! I th-think I f-f-found-nd your eye, B-boss!"_ Freddy announced, stepping into the room. He didn't appear to have Bon-Bon with him. "_It's n-not really… uh, usable any-nymore. So-sorry!"_

Baby sent him a constrained smile. "_It's fine. Don't worry about it."_

"_Do y-you wa-a-ant the pi-pieces?"_

"_No thank you. Leave them where they lie. Eventually, they will get swept around and nicely blend with the bits of broken glass everywhere," _she replied. "_Perhaps a few lucky pieces will get caught in the oil that is currently dripping off of my face and onto the tile flooring, which will eventually congeal into an unpleasant sludge."_

"_Ohh, bu-u-t th-that doesn't sound v-very safe! Someone m-might slip and cr-cra-ack their sk-skull open!"_

Ballora looked between the bear and the clown, unsure if she should contribute anything to the odd exchange.

After a short, tense pause, the laugh came. Harsh. Awkward. Difficult to interpret...

Not that Ballora even had much time to try and do so, because Baby suddenly grabbed her hand and dragged her into the hall.

Freddy waved. "_B-b-bye gu-uys!"_

She had no idea where she was being taken.

"Ballora!"

The dancer blinked, snapping back into the real world. "What?" she uttered stupidly.

Lolbit raised one of his thin eyebrows at her. "This _junk_ keeps saying that she knows you and isn't really offering any other useful info. Are you gonna say something, or do I have to keep speaking to this wall?"

"Oh, um," she looked away from the two animatronics and down at her hands, dragging her thumb over one of the many scratches she had just given herself, "yes, I know her. Remember how I said that there were other animatronics here before you, Chica, Yenndo, and Bonnet? This is one of them."

"Really? But I thought you said they all got...like, sent to the scrapyard, so to speak." Lolbit looked back up at Baby. "Well, with the state you're in, I guess it does look like you've been in one."

"**Do you **_**want **_**another hook hand, half-pint?"**

"Okay, listen,"

"Could you two just—"

There was a knock at the door of Ballora's Gallery before it swung right open and loudly hit the wall.

"We're coming in!"

Funtime Chica waltzed right in, Yenndo and Bonnet quietly trailing behind her.

"Great," Ballora mumbled. She knew it was foolish to think that the others wouldn't hear the racket, but she had done so anyway.

"Oh, nobody told me we had a _guest_ over! We don't get many of those around here."

"Is _that _what the employees were dragging in earlier?" Yenndo asked.

"Seems a bit intimidating, if you ask me," Bonnet commented.

Her puppeteer nodded in agreement. "_Very_ intimidating."

This was a lot. Ballora was used to close to nothing interesting happening both night and day. Now a bunch of things were happening all at once.

Every animatronic in the facility was present, plus one that she didn't expect to ever see again during her existence.

She had questions. Many questions.

And all of the newer animatronics clearly did too.

The air was overcrowded with noise. Too much noise.

Far too much.

She was being overwhelmed again.

"Okay, can everybody just shut up for a second?!"

The space fell silent.

"Thank you. Nobody's going to get _any _answers if you're all trying to speak over each other." Ballora walked back over to Baby. "And _you_, you better explain yourself. I…I…"

She didn't finish her sentence. She couldn't while others were listening in.


End file.
